Sheridan Elem School vs Rondout Elem School

Rondout Elem School holds an overall rating of 9.9/10, 0.8 points higher than Sheridan Elem School's 9.1/10 — a gap that looks modest until Illinois statewide rankings supply the context. Rondout ranks #4 of 3,813 Illinois schools, placing it in the top fraction of a percent statewide. Sheridan ranks #77 of 3,813, which still puts it in the top 2% of nearly four thousand schools. The separation between them reflects elite-tier performance differences, not a comparison between a strong school and a struggling one.

On academic proficiency, Rondout Elem School scores 9.7/10 against Sheridan Elem School's 9.3/10, a 0.4-point advantage. The more pronounced difference appears in growth: Rondout's 9.9/10 versus Sheridan's 8.6/10 is a 1.3-point spread, indicating that Rondout students make measurably faster academic gains year over year regardless of where they start. For families whose child is working to close a gap — or consistently tests above grade level and needs sustained challenge — the growth differential carries more practical weight than the proficiency gap alone.

Rondout Elem School enrolls 149 students compared to Sheridan Elem School's 265, a 44% difference for two schools 3.6 miles apart. That smaller headcount pairs with a tighter student-teacher ratio: 8.3:1 at Rondout versus 10.2:1 at Sheridan. Both ratios fall well below national averages, but Rondout's 1.9-student advantage per teacher translates to more individual attention in every classroom. Sheridan's larger enrollment can support a wider range of peer interactions and activities that very small school populations sometimes cannot sustain.

The schools differ sharply in grade span. Sheridan Elem School serves pre-K through grade 4, meaning families will need a separate placement for grades 5 through 8. Rondout Elem School runs from kindergarten through grade 8, keeping students in one building through middle school with no transition required. Pre-K families have an option exclusively at Sheridan. Families who want to eliminate the elementary-to-middle-school switch have a path exclusively at Rondout.